Open Connectivity Foundation Brings Massive Scale to IoT Ecosystem

19.2.2016 16:00 | Business Wire

Del

Today, major industry leaders who are invested in the future of the
Internet of Things, announced they will unify as the Open Connectivity
Foundation (OCF), an entity whose goal will be to help unify IoT
standards so that companies and developers can create IoT solutions and
devices that work seamlessly together. Via cross-industry collaboration,
the OCF will work towards unlocking the massive opportunity of the
future global IoT segment, accelerate industry innovation and help all
developers and companies create solutions that map to a single, open IoT
interoperability specification. Ultimately, with OCF specifications,
protocols and open source projects, a wide-range of consumer, enterprise
and embedded devices and sensors from a variety of manufacturers, can
securely and seamlessly interact with one another.

The OCF unifies the entirety of the former Open Interconnect Consortium
with leading companies at all levels – silicon, software, platform, and
finished-goods – dedicated to providing this key interoperability
element of an IoT solution.

The OCF’s vision for IoT is that billions of connected devices
(appliances, phones, computers, industrial equipment) will communicate
with one another regardless of manufacturer, operating system, chipset
or transport. With the OCF fulfilling this promise, anyone – from a
large technology company to a maker in their garage - can adopt the open
standards of OCF to innovate and compete, helping ensure secure
interoperability for consumers, business, and industry.

About Open Connectivity Foundation

Billions of connected devices (devices, phones, computers and sensors)
should be able to communicate with one another regardless of
manufacturer, operating system, chipset or physical transport. The Open
Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is creating a specification
and sponsoring an open source project to make this possible. OCF will
unlock the massive opportunity in the IoT market, accelerate industry
innovation and help developers and companies create solutions that map
to a single open specification. OCF will help ensure secure
interoperability for consumers, business, and industry. For more
information, please visit www.openconnectivity.org.

Supporting Quotes

ARRIS

“We are excited to be a part of this revolutionary group of leaders and
look forward to bringing a standardized and powerful solution to both
Service Providers and Retail as more devices and IoT services enter the
market.” – Charles Cheevers, CTO, Customer Premises Equipment.

CableLabs

“CableLabs is all about interoperability and scale economics. We are
extremely supportive of the unification of these efforts and believe
that it will allow the broader industry to better leverage their
equipment, services and infrastructure. This greatly expands the
Internet of Things footprint for cable operators, their suppliers, and
most importantly their subscribers.” – Ralph Brown, Chief Technology
Officer

Cisco

"OIC’s leadership and expansion to OCF is a step forward as these two
leading standards bodies are unified to achieve a common set of
protocols and certifications for IoT. OCF will help enable developers
and industries around consumer, SP, enterprise, industrial to leverage
promise of IoT in a scalable and secure manner.” – John Oberon, Vice
President, IoT Software

Electrolux

“The Open Connectivity Foundation will create significant value for
consumers by paving the way for an interoperable future. We’re well on
our way to a truly smart home, and this will only happen when appliances
can freely communicate with a wide range of products. This important
move takes us one step closer to realizing that vision, by widening our
existing collaboration initiatives to an even larger number of global
brands.” -- Jan Brockmann, Chief Operations Officer

GE Digital

“Breaking down the barriers of technology silos and supporting better
integration of these solutions and devices will be key to advancing the
Industrial Internet of Things. GE is excited to join together with other
organizations to create the standards that will help enable
interoperability in the future.” – Greg Petroff, Chief Experience Officer

Intel

“We believe in a future where all of the devices in our lives are
connected to enable ways of living and working that we can’t even
imagine today. The only way to unlock the unlimited possibilities for
innovation in the Internet of Things is to unify our work with industry
peers. This collaboration is an exciting step in that direction.” – Doug
Fisher, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Software and Services
Group

Microsoft

“The OCF will help consolidate industry attention and create
opportunity, via an agreed upon set of protocols that move the world
forward. We are designing Windows 10 to be the ideal operating system
and Azure to be the best cloud companion for Things, and for both of
them to interoperate with all Things. Windows 10 devices will natively
support the new OCF standard, making it easy for Windows to discover,
communicate, and orchestrate multiple IoT devices in the home, in
business, and beyond. We look forward to seeing the innovation this new
standard will enable for all customers and the endless opportunities it
will create for developers.” – Terry Myerson, EVP, Windows and Devices
Group

Qualcomm

“Qualcomm has pursued the goal of open interoperability from the
beginning. We helped develop the AllJoyn framework to drive this goal,
and now we look forward to collaborating with leading IoT-focused
companies to form the OCF for precisely the same reason. We look forward
to achieving the IoT vision we all share.” – Michael Wallace, President
of Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc. (a subsidiary of Qualcomm
Incorporated)

Samsung

"OIC has been working to develop a standard specification for IoT
devices, and at the same time developing IoTivity as an open source
reference implementation. We welcome these leaders in their fields to
OCF, which we believe will become the most diverse global organization
developing IoT standards and code." – SeungHwan Cho, Executive Vice
President and Deputy Head of Software R&D Center